


i'll only go if she stays

by cherylbarrel



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: 3x09 Rewrite, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, F/F, Protective Cheryl Blossom, southside serpents, what I would have liked to see happen during the scene when jughead kicked cheryl and toni out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-17
Updated: 2019-01-17
Packaged: 2019-10-11 13:51:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17448209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cherylbarrel/pseuds/cherylbarrel
Summary: “You’d really do that to us?” he asks, lips pressed together, and voice eerily calm.Cheryl takes one calculated step forward until her and Jughead are closer than she ever would have liked them to be.“I think you’ve greatly misjudged something about me, Jughead. I may have grown to care about all of you here, but there’s only one of you I love.”A rewrite from the 3x09 exile scene, only this time, Cheryl fights for her girl.





	i'll only go if she stays

**Author's Note:**

> SPOILERS FOR RIVERDALE EPISODE 3X09 
> 
> Alright so I needed to rewrite the scene where jughead kicks toni and cheryl out. I tried to keep it realistic for canon. Personally, I totally could have seen something like this go down, but it didn't, so I wrote it instead. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

Fangs drops his jacket at Jughead’s feet, and then storms off to his trailer with his head held as high as he could carry it. He could hear Sweet Pea shouting objections behind him, but Fp grips Sweet Pea by the shoulders before he was able to go after his best friend. Fangs figures it was for the best. 

Cheryl and Toni are taken aback by their King’s actions. Truthfully, Cheryl didn’t believe Jughead had it in him to really ban all three of them. Not to mention, it was a dumb move. The serpent’s needed all the numbers they could get, and Jughead’s willing to let three of them go over petty crimes? 

Hypocrite. 

Cheryl wonders every day why Jughead Jones is the one to sit atop the throne when it should be Toni in his place. 

Toni, who was born into this gang, who’s family founded it, who has the southside serpent’s running through her damn blood. 

Jughead joined only a few months ago, and prior to, he wanted nothing to do with his father’s gang. 

Oh how things change. 

They’ve all broken laws. 

Jughead abandoned them when they needed their leader most, and yet he gets to come back and pick up like nothing happened? 

Like it wasn’t Toni, Fangs, and Sweet Pea holding down the fort and keeping them alive this entire time. 

“Turn in your jackets and go,” Jughead mutters, turning his attention back to the couple in front of him. 

Fp is sighing heavily behind him, and Betty is looking down with something resembling guilt on her features. 

Yeah right, Cheryl thinks. 

“Seriously, Jones?” Toni speaks up, her jaw is clenched, and Cheryl can feel the hand Toni has wrapped around her wrist grow tighter. “I’m a serpent by blood, you can’t take that away from me.” 

“You broke the code,” Is all Jughead says in means of explanation. 

Cheryl can hear Toni’s breath get caught in her throat, can feel her girlfriend’s hand all but cutting off the circulation in her wrist, can sense that Toni’s a few seconds away from either socking Jughead in the face, or breaking down in tears. Probably both. 

She didn’t want this. 

It may not be right, but Jughead is the Serpent King and he’s made his decision. They fucked up, _Cheryl_ fucked up. And now Toni was going to lose everything over it. 

It’s not fucking fair, but it’s what’s happening. 

“We’re keeping the jackets,” Cheryl speaks with a harsh bite in her tone. 

He can’t take everything from them. 

But then again, he already has. 

Jughead brings his hand up to his face tiredly. 

“Fine. But I need you to give me that egg.” 

“Not happening,” Cheryl scoffs. 

“It’s part of the deal. Veronica will only give us those jobs if I get that damn egg back,” Jughead looks at her with a deadly serious glare. 

They were equally through with each other’s games. 

Jughead couldn’t take another second of Cheryl’s unpredictable behaviour, and Cheryl couldn’t handle another second of Jughead’s holier than thou attitude. The pair had finally reached an impending crossroads. They both knew this moment was coming, Cheryl just never thought Jughead would have the upper hand when it did. 

“Why the hell would I care? I’m not a serpent anymore,” Cheryl kept her own gaze as steely and cold as Jughead’s. 

Did he think she was going to make it easy for him? 

Cheryl Blossom doesn’t lose without some sense of dignity still intact, and although the words are a lie, she’ll say whatever she has to right now in order to keep Jughead from seeing even an ounce of weakness on her face. 

She’ll give the egg back to Veronica herself if that’s what it takes to employ the serpents, she’d never leave them high and dry, even if she wasn’t one of them anymore, they treated her like real family these past months, and that’s something Jughead can never take away from her. 

“Because I still believe you have some sense of honour, Cheryl,” Jughead moves closer, getting into her face. 

He’s getting nervous, Cheryl can tell. This doesn’t work unless she complies with his wishes. 

It feels nice for a moment, to have somewhat of an upper hand again, but the the feeling doesn’t last longer than ten seconds. 

Toni’s quiet beside her, either, too angry, too shocked, too heartbroken, or most likely all three, to say anything. 

And that’s what hurts most.

Not this sudden ambush against her serpent membership, not being belittled for stupid mistakes in front of an audience by Jughead of all people, not even losing her right to stand amongst the group of people she calls a family. 

No. None of those things even come close to hurting her as much as knowing that because of her, Toni is losing everything she’s ever known. 

“I don’t believe what you really want is to leave us all with nothing,” Jughead finishes. 

Toni’s hand slides down from it’s place on Cheryl’s wrist, and fits itself in her palm instead. Toni squeezes her hand, and Cheryl takes it as Toni asking her to let it go. 

Toni knows more than anyone how badly the serpents need these jobs, she wouldn’t let her own, or Cheryl’s, pride stand in the way of that. 

Cheryl glances away from Jughead’s angry scowl, instead turning to meet the soft eyes of her girlfriend. 

Cheryl’s facade of strength crumbles then. She tries to silently tell Toni how sorry she is for letting this happen. 

But God, there’s no look Cheryl can give her that will make up for the devastation written all over Toni’s face. 

Cheryl can tell Toni isn’t even mad at her, and for some reason that just makes it worse. 

Here this woman was, willing and ready to do and be anything for Cheryl, and she’s repaid by being exiled from her family’s own gang? 

Cheryl’s fucked up a lot in her life, but she absolutely refuses to let this be another one of those times. 

“Under one condition,” Cheryl whips her head back around to look at Jughead. The HBIC persona she’s perfected over the years firmly in place. She may be feeling broken and weak on the inside, but right now, she’s determined to push those feelings down like she’s so used to doing, and fight for her girlfriend. 

“You’re under no position to be making demands,” Jughead jeers back at her. 

“Toni stays,” Cheryl states simply, disregarding the Serpent King’s previous words. 

Jughead lifts his eyebrows slightly, not being able to hide the fact that the words, and the determined tone they were spoken in, do take him by surprise. 

“You _both_ broke our law,” he argues. 

“She stays or I smash that egg to pieces,” Cheryl says. 

The entire yard of serpent’s are silent. Watching and listening to the exchange intently. They all have their opinions on the matter, some finding it much more difficult than others not to speak up. Either way, they all bite their tongue in this moment. 

“Cher…” Toni quietly speaks, looking up at the girl and trying her hardest to read the expression on Cheryl’s face. However, not even Toni can manage to break through this icy exterior she’s put up. 

Cheryl needs to make sure that Jughead knows she isn’t kidding. 

Toni doesn’t know what else she’s supposed to say, and Jughead beats her to the conversation before she figures it out. 

“You’d really do that to us?” he asks, lips pressed together, and voice eerily calm. 

Cheryl takes one calculated step forward until her and Jughead are closer than she ever would have liked them to be. 

“I think you’ve greatly misjudged something about me, Jughead. I may have grown to care about all of you here, but there’s only one of you I _love_.” 

Cheryl can’t bare to turn her head a couple inches to the left, where the woman who she’d do anything for stands. 

“I’ll let you all go hungry and homeless if I have to,” She _lies_. 

Jughead’s eyes flick over to Toni’s for the first time since they’ve started talking. Honestly, he couldn’t bring himself to look at her before now. He knew the guilt would creep up on him if he did, and boy, was he right. 

Toni stares right back at him, the rims of her eyes are red as they sting from the threat of tears desperately trying to push through, and she looks at Jughead like she doesn’t even recognize him, like she couldn’t believe the boy she gave a chance to, all that time ago at Southside High, is the same one standing in front of her now. 

Jughead sighs. 

He spares more glances around to the rest of the serpents. To Sweet Pea who looks furiously at him, to Fp who looks curious by what he’ll choose to do, and then to Betty, who looks at him with gentle eyes. Through such a simple look, Jughead understands everything she’s trying to tell him. She wants him to remember who he is, deep down, before the serpents, before all the responsibility, and chaos. She knows what he’ll choose, because she knows _him_. 

“You don’t exile Toni, and I’ll give you that egg and stay out of your way from now on. So, do we have a deal or not?” Cheryl impatiently proded. 

Jughead studies her for just a moment longer. 

“If I let her stay, you don’t ever come back,” he stresses. 

“I know,” Cheryl says. 

“Then we have a deal.” 

Jughead finally turns back around and walks to his self-proclaimed serpent throne. Betty gives him a nod, silently telling him he did the right thing. 

Even Fp looks a little relieved at the outcome. Although he wouldn’t question Jughead’s decisions in front of the whole gang, he has to admit he didn’t want to see Toni go. She belongs here. 

“This is a serpent meeting, anyone who’s not, can’t be here,” Jughead says once he’s seated back on his chair. It’s the nicest way he can think of telling Cheryl it’s time for her to go. 

Cheryl nods. 

She was done fighting. 

She got what she wanted. 

What she needed. 

Toni got to stay, and that’s all that mattered. 

She finally did something right. 

Suddenly, Toni is pulling her towards herself and kissing her without a care in the world for all the serpents who are here watching them. 

Toni is still for a loss of words, even now. 

No words she could possibly say would ever tell Cheryl just how thankful she is anyway. There’s not a single doubt in her mind that this is the girl she loves, and is the girl she wants to spend forever with. She would have felt that way even if it had been the both of them walking away from the serpents tonight. She would feel this way no matter what. 

But there’s something about the way Cheryl stood up for her, something that no one’s ever done for her before, that has Toni really thinking about how this is the girl of her goddamn dreams standing in front of her. 

They pull apart, and Toni whispers, “I love you,” when they do. 

“I love you too,” Cheryl responds without a second thought, and the first tear of the evening slides down the redhead’s cheek. 

In fear she can’t keep her walls up any longer, Cheryl untangles her hands from Toni’s, and walks away, not even sparing another glance over her shoulder, knowing that the sight will only make her cry harder.

Toni watches her go, gripping the edge of her own serpent jacket tightly. A reminder that she’s still here, all thanks to that sensational girl who wasn’t given a second chance. 

One of her boots steps forward without her even meaning to, an instinct to go over after Cheryl coming over her. Toni doesn’t know how she’s supposed to just leave her alone at a time like this. 

A voice from behind her stops her in her tracks. 

“If you go after her now, you better not come back.” 

It’s harsh. Even for Jughead. 

But he’s trying to prove he can be the decisive, headstrong leader they need. A good leader can’t waver, or bend the rules. 

The thing is though, he already has countless times. 

Toni’s relieved that she’s still here, that she can still proudly wear the southside serpent symbol on her back, that she hasn’t been exiled from her home. It’s not going to be easy though. To go back to how things were. To look at Jughead like he’s anything more than a hypocrite. 

She’s still a serpent, but that doesn’t mean that tonight doesn’t mark a significant change. 

Toni turns around, plants her feet firmly where she stands. 

Jughead relaxs slightly at the action, and just like that, he goes back to talking about serpent business. 

Toni isn’t listening though, not while a million other thoughts are running through her mind. 

She meets Sweet Pea’s eyes from across the yard, and sees a fire in them that she guesses must reflect similarly to the look in her own eyes. 

That’s all it takes for her to be sure. 

This isn’t over.

**Author's Note:**

> let me know what u thought? 
> 
> and feel free to come talk to me on tumblr @cheryl-in-a-barrel or on twitter @toninabarrel


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